Adrien Broner might’ve officially scored a win this past weekend, but it certainly wasn’t a win for Showtime as a headlining event. Reports have surfaced that Broner’s fight against Jovanie Santiago averaged only 288,000 viewers and a 0.11 rating for the coveted 18-49 demographic.
The heavyweight bout between Otto Wallin and Dominic Breazeale averaged 272,000 viewers while the show’s opening fight between Robert Easter Jr and Ryan Martin averaged 234,000 viewers.
Now one might not expect the undercard to pull much traction with fans, but Broner had been a bankable attraction for Showtime in the past, and these numbers clearly aren’t good in that regard. In comparison, Broner’s previous fights that aired live on Showtime (against Jessie Vargas, Mikey Garcia, and Adrian Granados) averaged 782,000, 881,000, and 779,000 viewers respectively. This could be as clear of an indication as any that Broner’s in-the-ring performances no longer make him a big attraction for fans.
But to contextualize things a bit more, this fight with Broner was against a no-name opponent and was running head-to-head against a much, much better headlining fight between Miguel Berchelt and Oscar Valdez on ESPN. And clearly that bout was of much bigger significance and interest for fans. It’s being reported that the ESPN card (Berchelt-Valdez) averaged 771,000 viewers with a 0.25 rating for the 18-49 group, making it the fourth best on cable for the day.
